


A Storm on the Horizon

by Maester_Aemon_Heterodyne



Series: The Coming of the End [1]
Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-07-23 16:35:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7471080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maester_Aemon_Heterodyne/pseuds/Maester_Aemon_Heterodyne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Several months after Willow took her vengeance on Warren for nearly killing both Tara and Buffy, Angel reappears in Sunnydale with grave and urgent news: a great darkness, the greatest darkness, the First Evil, is rising, and killing Potential Slayers all over the world, threatening to drive Slayers into extinction. </p><p>The first installment in the Coming of the End series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Storm on the Horizon

**Author's Note:**

> Canon is held up til Seeing Red. After that, most events are unchanged until the beginning of season 7.

Despite her sister's enthusiasm, Buffy knew better than to think of their outing as a social one. Dawn needed to know how to be ready in case Buffy wasn't there for her, in case she should encounter a vampire. Moreover, there would not be any repeat outings, no matter what her little sister wanted. She needed to know how to fight vampires for self-defense reasons only, not to put herself in harm's way needlessly. So far, however, they'd been out for well over two hours and the grave the sisters stood in front of was doing nothing. Buffy knew all too well that any moment now the earth would erupt and spit out a vampire, but it was hard to be exact about these things. While they waited, Dawn had began shuffling around listlessly out of boredom, and looked to be on the verge of whistling. Which was unacceptable, clearly. No one could slay vampires while listening to Dawn’s tuneless teakettle-whine.  

"Can you stop that? It's distracting," said Buffy.

"Sorry," Dawn muttered, ceasing her shifting and twitching.

It was a strangely warm night, even for September in Sunnydale. The whole summer had been strange, really. Not quite as many vampires as last year (apparently, at least; she hadn't been alive at the time and so had to pass judgment based on what her friends experienced, and likely embellished, in their stories), but a lot of other demon activity, much of it from demons and other beasties leaving town, which given the Hellmouth status of Sunnydale was very unusual. Even so, plenty of vampires still clawed their ways out of their own graves to haunt the living and provide target practice for Buffy.

Not that she'd had as much opportunity for slaying as she might have wanted. Besides her job at Burger King, she had spent a good deal of time training Dawn to fight (and much of that time amazed by her progress), and working with her sister to take care of an injured, mildly disabled, and often distraught Tara, she had put in many volunteer hours with Anya in helping to rebuild the parts of the Magic Box that Willow had badly damaged. This left fewer hours than might have been best to patrol.

Her thoughts were interrupted, however, when the ground before her suddenly started shifting in the ever-so-familiar way that it did when vampires finally ended their deaths and start slithering back amongst the living again.

"Ah," she began, throwing a stake to Dawn, who caught it expertly. "Now, this is about power. Who has it, who knows how to use it. So, who has the power, Dawn?"

"I do," she replied. Wrong answer, thought Buffy, cocking her head and pursing her lips to indicate so. Dawn's confidence fell, tainted with doubt. "Well, I've got the stake," she said, grasping.

"The stake's not the power."

"But, he's new. Maybe he doesn't know his own strength! Maybe he hasn't had time to learn all those combat skills they all... inevitably seem to acquire..." Dawn protested, but doubt crept across her face.

"Hey. Vampire. Demon? Preternaturally strong? Don't you remember? It doesn't matter how smart you are, or how strong, or how well prepared, he's always going to be stronger and more skilled, possessed of powers no human but a Slayer can wield, and you're going to be a little girl."

"Woman."

"Little woman."

"I'm taller than you."

"Vampire, Dawn! Remember? He's-"

"Pardon me," interjected the demon in question, falsely polite. "I'm sorry, but I think I'm stuck."

It took a moment for that to really register. When it did, Buffy sighed in exasperation, and over the sound of her little sister's sniggering turned to face the immobilised undead. "Stuck?" she said, with as strong an edge of sarcasm as she could muster.

"Yes, I must be caught on a root or something," he said. "If you ladies would be so kind..."

"So, he's got the power?" said Dawn, smiling.

"Oh, be quiet," Buffy retorted lamely. She sighed again, walked over to the demon, grabbed him by the back of his tailored funeral attire and hoisted him sharply out of the dirt.

"Aw, thank you ladies," said the vampire, with the hungry creep voice of his kind.  Now, I'm sorry, but this may have to be goodb-"

This didn't serve him as well as he likely intended. Buffy reached out and gripped his neck forcefully. "I'm sorry, sir, but I'm the Slayer. I kill vampires like you for a hobby. You probably don't want to tangle with me. But, if you want blood, you can have hers!" said Buffy in her best perky customer service voice, pointing to her sister. To his credit, the vampire bought it and looked to Dawn, who to her credit wasted no time in preparing for his strike. Buffy let him go.

Moments before he hit her, she dropped to the ground and rolled, tripping the vampire and causing him to fall and hit his head on a nearby gravestone, leaving him momentarily stunned. Dawn rose fluidly and thrust her stake into him with excellent focus and precision, dusting him before he could even move. It was really quite impressive. Buffy had thought to give further instructions, but Dawn, now celebrating with a little dance, hadn't really needed them.

"Don't think it'll be so easy next time," said Buffy, though through a broad smile. Her sister had just won her first vampire fight, and won quite neatly at that. "Remember that it's real. It's always real. That's the only lesson."

Dawn sighed. "I know. I'm just excited. I can't wait to do it again."

"Oh, no, there's not going to be a next time. You've got other things to worry about."

"I know, I know. I can't believe they're bringing it back."

"I thought I was done with that place."

"And it's starting again in only a few days. Do you think they'll have any of the same teachers?" asked Dawn.

"I don't know if any of them would want to come back."

"Hmm. You're probably right, after what happened to the school."

"Well, at least you're gonna be better prepared for what Sunnydale High offers its students than I was when I started."

"At least," said Dawn.

The two chatted happily about nothing in particular as they left the graveyard and made their way back home. On their way, Buffy's mind began to wander, as it often had these last few months. She felt proud of her sister, who had made rather unexpected strides in learning how to fight, yet now felt a little strange about her. She fought better, and learned more quickly, than any normal not-quite-sixteen-year-old girl should. In the training room in the back of the Magic Box (which Willow had left unlike almost every other part of the shop largely undamaged) Buffy had been sparring with Dawn since the beginning of the summer, and found she enjoyed spending time with her sister in such a manner more than almost any other way. Dawn liked it even more than Buffy, and this mutual understanding had brought the sisters closer together than they'd been since they were tiny. She'd started clumsy and uncertain, but within only only a week or two had become significantly more confidant in her own ability. Buffy had discovered that her sister was excellently well balanced, gymnast-level flexible, and quick as a snake when she focused, and on top of it all a quick learner of weapons skills. Taken together these things seemed to strike an uncomfortably familiar chord. Buffy herself had been like that as a fifteen-year-old, the way she had effortlessly taken to the more rigorous aspects of cheerleading. This however was not something she cared at all to think about. The idea that her sister was like her, in that specific way of all things... no, she couldn't have been. What were the odds? She was probably overthinking it anyway. Dawn was talented, that was all. Nothing unusual.

Home smelled wonderful when they arrived. Tara must have been up cooking. Still living with Dawn and Buffy, she spent most her time not in classes or in solitude cooking, more than anything as a way of keeping herself occupied, she rarely was up past nine or ten at night and wasn't usually known for taking a midnight snack. Though it was well past midnight now, she was clearly cooking. A delicious spicy smell wafted through the house, promising food. She and Dawn had made sure to eat before going, yet a snack before bed never hurt, especially after being out as long as they had. And given how much Dawn was eating these days, more food was of the good. 

Buffy, ignoring the kitchen at first, stowed her weapons in the living room chest, and put away her jacket and hat. Smiling to herself, Buffy strode off to the kitchen, humming without direction. Tara stood over the stove, stirring a sizzling pan of a wonderful something-or-other, though looking oddly nervous. 

For a moment, Buffy didn't notice the other people there with her. Dawn stood in front of the counter, her back to Buffy, but she wasn't what caught her attention. When she saw him there, the dark, brooding man sitting at the counter, Buffy froze, and her carefree feeling dissolved like a staked vampire. His presence couldn't mean good news. Why didn't he say he was coming, though? And why would he come at all?

"Buffy," he said, his voice pleasant but heavy, and a little shaky.

Buffy took a moment to respond, somewhat taken aback. "Angel? Wh- what are you doing here?"

Angel never come to Sunnydale on social calls. The last time he'd come back had been after the death of Buffy's mom, and he hadn't stayed long, even then. Something very bad must've happened in Los Angeles to have sent him back. "It's good to see you," he said, after a bit of a pause.  

"Good to see you too," she said. "But, why?" she asked. She took a seat at the counter.

Angel's face darkened somewhat. "I wish I were here for good news, or anything other than this. Buffy, I need to warn you about something, and you're not going to like it," he said, rather gravely. "I know it's part of our arrangement that I don't get involved in goings on here in Sunnydale, that I stay away, but this isn't a local thing. It's worldwide, and concerns everyone everywhere."

"Well?" she asked, seeing that he wasn't going to continue.

Angel paused for a moment before replying. "About two weeks ago, Gunn and Fred ran into a robed man chasing a girl of about sixteen. Gunn fought him and brought him down, but he killed himself instead of being captured. When they brought him back to the hotel, Wesley was able to identify him as a Harbinger," he said.

Harbinger? Buffy knew that from somewhere. After a moment, and with an unpleasant feeling, the memories returned. "One of the First Evil's minions?"

"Yes. A couple of days later, we saw the same thing happen again. A group of four Bringers were chasing a young girl of about the same age as the other one. When we got to them, they'd already injured her. When we dealt with the Bringers, we brought the girl back to the hotel, and tried to treat her as best we could. When she woke up, we learned that she was a Slayer in training, under a Watcher named Gavin Heath."

"A potential Slayer? Why? What threat could she pose?" Even as she said it though, a rather uncomfortable theory was unfolding in her mind.

"Quite a good one, if anything might happen to Faith. The girl, Sarah, her name was, said that she'd been going home when she noticed the Bringers following her. She ran, but one of them got close enough to cut her pretty deeply, and that's when we found her. Unfortunately, Sarah died before she could say anything else. In the week or so after that, Wesley and Fred searched the news all over the country for cases of girls of fifteen or sixteen being stabbed. There were quite a few cases just like this, actually, more than we'd expected. Wesley was able to identify several of them as Slayers-in-training. Many of their Watchers had also been found dead."

"So, what, the First Evil is targeting anyone who could become a Slayer?" asked Dawn.

"That's what we think is happening, yes. Wesley eventually talked to a contact from the Watchers, and we learned that more than thirty of the the Watcher's some two hundred and forty identified potentials have been killed already, and all in the last two months. They also suspect that the First Evil has ways of finding them that the Council doesn't, since it seems to be targeting girls the Council never noticed."

Buffy let that sink in a moment. When, after she had managed to come to a tentative conclusion about it, she wasn't sure she really knew what she could quite wrap her mind around it all. "The First Evil trying to destroy future Slayers, not current ones? So, then, no more Slayers can be called?" she asked quietly.

"I think so, and Wesley agrees. I’ve warned Faith already, in case the First tries to assassinate her inside prison, but I think it may see you as a better target, since killing Faith will simply create another Slayer."

Another heavy moment passed in silence. The weight of the matter was quite tangible, yet its sheer magnitude difficult to grasp. Could it really be done? Could the Slayer line be ended forever? There had always been a Slayer for the last five thousand years, and there were two now. There could soon be none. That, more than anything else Buffy had ever faced, would surely mean the end of the world, at least as everyone knew it, and it would likely be fast overrun with demons of all sorts. She felt rather like she needed to be sitting down before realising that she already was.

Though Buffy almost didn't notice it, she heard Tara's soft voice gently breathing into the silence. "Food's ready."

  
  



End file.
